Charged particle beam device

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11961699-B2
Application number	US-201817416012-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 25, 2018
Priority date	Dec 25, 2018
Publication date	Apr 16, 2024
Grant date	Apr 16, 2024

Abstract

A charged particle beam device which prevents an appearance of a shading contrast due to azimuth discrimination and obtains a clear magnetic domain contrast image with a high resolution and a high throughput. The charged particle beam device includes an electron beam source; a sample stage; an objective lens configured to focus electron beams on a sample; a detector that is mounted on a charged particle beam source side with respect to the objective lens and separately detects secondary electrons emitted in azimuth angle ranges of two or more different azimuths for the same observation region; an image processing and image management device including an image processing unit configured to perform synthesis after performing shading correction and contrast adjustment on an image obtained by detecting a first emission azimuth and an image obtained by detecting a second emission azimuth; an image database; and an image display unit.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A charged particle beam device comprising:
a charged particle beam source configured to generate a charged particle beam;
a sample stage;
an objective lens configured to focus charged particle beams on a sample;
an electric field generation unit configured to apply an accelerating electric field to secondary electrons generated from the sample, the secondary electrons being distributed between the sample and the objective lens;
a detector that is mounted on a charged particle beam source side with respect to the objective lens and is capable of separately detecting secondary electrons emitted in azimuth angle ranges of two or more different azimuths for the same observation region; and
an image processing unit configured to perform synthesis by performing shading correction and contrast adjustment on an image obtained by detecting a first emission azimuth by the detector and an image obtained by detecting a second emission azimuth by the detector.

2. The charged particle beam device according to claim 1 , further comprising:
an image database that accumulates the image; and
an image display unit configured to display the image synthesized by the image processing unit.

3. The charged particle beam device according to claim 2 , wherein
the image display unit displays a GUI configured to set an image processing parameter for the shading correction and the contrast adjustment that are performed by the image processing unit.

4. The charged particle beam device according to claim 3 , wherein
the image displayed on the image display unit is a magnetic domain contrast image of the sample.

5. The charged particle beam device according to claim 1 , wherein
the first emission azimuth and the second emission azimuth are azimuths in which central azimuths thereof are substantially orthogonal to each other.

6. The charged particle beam device according to claim 1 , wherein
in a sensing surface of the detector configured to detect the first emission azimuth and a sensing surface of the detector configured to detect the second emission azimuth, azimuths at central portions of the sensing surfaces of the detectors facing from an optical axis are substantially orthogonal to each other.

7. The charged particle beam device according to claim 1 , wherein
the detector has a sensing surface divided into a plurality of pieces that are symmetrical relative to an optical axis.

8. The charged particle beam device according to claim 1 , wherein
the shading correction performed by the image processing unit uses a Rolling Ball algorithm.

9. The charged particle beam device according to claim 1 , wherein
the detector detects the secondary electrons emitted in azimuth angle ranges of two or more different azimuths at different timings.

10. The charged particle beam device according to claim 9 , wherein
the sample stage has a rotation function for the detector to detect, at different timings, the secondary electrons emitted in azimuth angle ranges of two or more different azimuths.

11. The charged particle beam device according to claim 9 , wherein
a scanning electron microscope including an electron beam source which is the charged particle beam source, the sample stage, the objective lens, and a first deflection unit configured to deflect an electron beam with which the sample is irradiated from the electron beam source, and a focused ion beam device configured to process the sample are mounted.

12. The charged particle beam device according to claim 11 , wherein
a surface of the sample is processed using the focused ion beam device, and a mark of the same observation region is attached.

13. The charged particle beam device according to claim 9 , wherein
the charged particle beam device is a scanning electron microscope that includes an electron beam source which is a charged particle beam source, the sample stage, the objective lens, the first deflection unit configured to deflect an electron beam with which the sample is irradiated from the electron beam source, the second deflection unit configured to deflect the secondary electrons, and the control system configured to control the first deflection unit and the second deflection unit.

14. The charged particle beam device according to claim 13 , wherein
an angle-limited diaphragm for the secondary electrons is provided between the detector and the sample;
the second deflection unit is provided between the angle-limited diaphragm and the sample; and
the control system controls a deflection direction and a deflection amount for the secondary electrons by the second deflection unit, and thereby the detector separately detects the secondary electrons emitted in azimuth angle ranges of two or more different azimuths for the same observation region.

15. The charged particle beam device according to claim 13 , wherein
the control system controls a deflection intensity of the second deflection unit in conjunction with the first deflection unit.

Assignees

• Hitachi High Tech Corp

Inventors

• Morishita Hideo
• Kohashi Teruo
• Yamamoto Hiroyuki
• Katane Junichi

Classifications

• H01J37/222 Primary

  Image processing arrangements associated with the tube · CPC title

• H01J37/14

  magnetic · CPC title

• H01J37/268

  with scanning beams · CPC title

• H01J2237/24564

  Measurements of electric or magnetic variables, e.g. voltage, current, frequency · CPC title

• H01J2237/24465

  Sectored detectors, e.g. quadrants · CPC title